In April, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited a company that makes humanoid robots. There he floated a concept to fix the country's woeful males's soccer group.

"Can we have robots sign up with the group?" Xi was priced estimate as stating on the site of Zhiyuan Robotics.

It may be too late. China will be out of World Cup certifying if it stops working to beat Indonesia on Thursday. Even a success might only postpone the departure.

What's the problem? China has 1.4 billion people, the globe's second biggest economy and won 40 Olympic gold medals last year in Paris to tie the United States. Why can't it find 11 elite males's soccer players?

The federal government touches every element of life in China. That top-down control has actually helped China become the biggest maker of everything from electronic devices to shoes to steel.

It has tried to run soccer, however that rigid governance hasn't worked.

"What soccer reflects is the social and political problems of China," Zhang Feng, a Chinese journalist and commentator, informs The Associated Press. "It ´ s not a free society. It does not have the team-level trust that permits gamers to pass the ball to each other without fretting."

Zhang argues that politics has actually stalled soccer's growth. And there's included pressure given that Xi's a big fan and has assured to resuscitate the game at home. Soccer is a world language with its "own grammar," says Zhang, and China does not speak it.

"In China, the more focus the leader locations on soccer, the more worried the society gets, the more power the bureaucrats get, and the more corrupt they end up being," Zhang includes.

After China beat Thailand 2-1 in 2023, Xi joked with Srettha Thavisin, the Thai prime minister at the time. "I feel luck was a big part of it," Xi stated.

The consensus is clear. China has too couple of quality players at the grass roots, excessive political interference from the Communist Party, and there's too much corruption in the regional video game.

Wang Xiaolei, another popular Chinese analyst, suggests that soccer clashes with China's top-down governance and the focus on rote knowing.

"What are we best at? Dogma," Wang wrote in a blog in 2015. "But football can not be dogmatic. What are we worst at? Inspiring resourcefulness, and cultivating passion."

The most recent chapter in China's abysmal men's soccer history was a 7-0 loss in 2015 to geopolitical rival Japan.

"The truth that this defeat can occur and people aren ´ t that surprised - regardless of the historical bitterness - simply highlights the issues dealing with football in China," says Cameron Wilson, a Scot who has actually operated in China for twenty years and composed extensively about the video game there.

China has actually qualified for just one men's World Cup. That was 2002 when it went scoreless and lost all three matches. Soccer's governing body FIFA positions China at No. 94 in its rankings - behind war-torn Syria and ahead of No. 95 Benin.

For viewpoint: Iceland is the smallest country to reach the World Cup. Its newest population quote is practically 400,000.

The website Soccerway tracks international football and doesn't show a single Chinese player in a leading European league. The national team's finest player is forward Wu Lei, who played for three seasons in Spain's La Liga for Espanyol. The club's bulk owner in Chinese.

The 2026 World Cup will have a field of 48 teams, a big increase on the 32 in 2022, yet China still might not make it.

China will be eliminated from credentials if it loses to Indonesia. Even if it wins, China needs to also beat Bahrain on June 10 to have any hope of advancing to Asia's next qualifying stage.

Englishman Rowan Simons has actually spent nearly 40 years in China and acquired fame doing tv commentary in Chinese on English Premier League matches. He likewise wrote the 2008 book "Bamboo Goalposts."

China is gaining from reforms over the last decade that put soccer in schools. But Simons argues that soccer culture grows from volunteers, and club companies, none of which can grow in China considering that they are possible oppositions to the guideline of the Communist Party.

"In China at the age of 12 or 13, when kids go to intermediate school, it ´ s called the cliff," he says. "Parents might permit their kids to play sports when they ´ re younger, however as quickly as it pertains to middle school the scholastic pressure is on - things like sport go by the wayside."

To be fair, the Chinese females's team has actually done much better than the men. China finished runner-up in the 1999 Women's World Cup but has actually faded as European groups have actually risen with built-in competence from the men's video game. Spain won the 2023 Women's World Cup. China was knocked out early, damaged 6-1 by England in group play.

China has achieved success targeting Olympic sports, a few of which are relatively unknown and depend on recurring training more than imagination. Olympic group sports like soccer offer only one medal. So, like numerous nations, China focuses on sports with numerous medals. In China's case it's diving, table tennis and weight-lifting.

"For youths, there's a single value - screening well," says Zhang, the commentator and reporter. "China would be OK if playing soccer were just about bouncing the ball 1,000 times."

Li Tie, the national team coach for about two years starting in January 2020, was in 2015 sentenced to twenty years in jail for bribery and match repairing. Other leading administrators have likewise been implicated of corruption.

The graft also reached the domestic Super League. Clubs invested millions - possibly billions - on foreign skills backed by many state-owned businesses and, before the collapse of the housing boom, real-estate designers.

The poster kid was Guangzhou Evergrande. The eight-time Super League champs, when coached by Italian Marcello Lippi, was expelled from the league and disbanded earlier this year, not able to pay off its financial obligations.

Zhang states business people bought professional soccer teams as a "political homage" and pointed out Hui Ka-yan. The embattled real estate developer funded the Guangzhou Evergrande Football Club and utilized soccer to win favor from politicians.

Residential or commercial property giant Evergrande has actually collected debts reported at $300 billion, reflective of China ´ s damaged residential or commercial property section and the general health of the economy.

"China ´ s failure at the international level and corruption throughout the game, these are all elements that lead parents far from letting their kids get involved," says Simons, who established a youth soccer club called China Club Football FC.

"Parents look at what ´ s going on and concern if they want their kids to be included. It ´ s unfortunate and discouraging."

Wade reported from Tokyo and Tang from Washington.

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer